The disclosed embodiments relate to balloon catheters used to dialate a stenosis or the like in a body cavity, such as a blood vessel. Balloon catheters have generally been used to dilate a stenosis or the like in a body cavity, such as a blood vessel. An example of a balloon catheter mainly includes a balloon, which is an inflatable body, an outer shaft, and an inner shaft disposed inside the outer shaft. The inner shaft allows a guidewire to be inserted therethrough. The outer shaft forms an inflation lumen between the inner shaft and an inner surface of the outer shaft. Liquid, such as a contrast medium or physiological saline solution, for inflating the balloon is caused to flow through the inflation lumen.
To move the balloon catheter to a desired position in a blood vessel or the like, an operator, such as a doctor, applies a pushing force to the catheter at a proximal portion thereof to insert the catheter into the body by pushing the catheter in an axial direction. The balloon catheter is required to have a high pushing-force transmission performance, which is the performance of transmitting the pushing force from the proximal portion to a distal portion thereof.
There are some balloon catheters in which a core wire is disposed in an outer shaft to increase the pushing-force transmission performance and adjust rigidity variation in the balloon catheters (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-291899 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2002-505166). In such a balloon catheter that includes a core wire, a distal end portion of the core wire may be fixed to a part of the catheter to further increase the pushing-force transmission performance (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) Nos. 2003-517901, 8-500505, and 9-503411).